Skylight

skylight

Roof opening covered with translucent or transparent glass or plastic designed to admit daylight. Skylights have found wide application admitting steady, even light in industrial, commercial, and residential buildings, especially those with a northern orientation. Installations range from purely functional daylighting to elaborate aesthetic forms. Flat-roofed buildings may have domed skylights; in others the skylight follows the slope of the roof. Often the skylight, or a portion of it, functions as an operating window to admit air.

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skylight [′skī‚līt]

(astrophysics)

diffuse sky radiation

(engineering)

An opening in a roof or ship deck that is covered with glass or plastic and designed to admit daylight.

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skylight

skylight

In a roof, an opening which is glazed with a transparent or translucent material; used to admit diffused light to the space below. Compare with dome light. Also see hip skylight, lantern skylight, monitor skylight, pitched skylight, sawtooth skylight.

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Skylight 

(1) A usually round or polygonal structure with large window openings, situated atop a cupola or other type of roof and designed to provide illumination of the structure.

(2) A glassed-in section of a roof, designed to provide overhead illumination.

(3) A roof section in an industrial building, usually in the form of a superstructure with openings, designed to provide natural illumination and/or ventilation of the premises. Most skylights are rectangular in shape, but trapezoidal, gabled, triangular, and other designs are also used. Those providing illumination only or both illumination and ventilation feature casements with single or double windowpanes. If the skylight is not intended to provide ventilation, the casements are usually not designed to be opened; otherwise, remote-control mechanisms are used to open and close the casements. In addition to conventional skylight designs, commercial buildings are often equipped with overhead, chimney-like structures, the upper openings of which are approximately flush with the roof. This type of skylight has a support section mounted on a roofing slab or beam and a transparent or translucent cover in the form of a panel, dome, or arch. The cover may be made of plate or shaped glass, poly methyl methacrylate (organic glass), insulation glass units, or polyester fiber glass. Ventilation skylights are used mainly in buildings where considerable amounts of heat, gas, and dust are generated. They are usually equipped with wind-protection panels and sheet-steel casements that open and close.

REFERENCES

Drozdov, V. A. Fonari i okna promyshlennykh zdanii. Moscow, 1972.
Konstruktsii promyshlennykh zdanii. Edited by A. N. Popov. Moscow, 1972.

IU. P. ALEKSANDROV